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Sorry for not replying sooner, I missed your reply. I should have been more specific about the context: I'm talking about failed projects that were doomed from

Sorry for not replying sooner, I missed your reply. I should have been more specific about the context: I'm talking about failed projects that were doomed from the start, and known to be in such a state by those that were involved. There are many (most ?) projects that look okay right up until the implementation when all the problems become visible. Those types of projects are fertile grounds for learning from experience, and I would categorize them as valuable experiences. Obviously if a developer is in a junior position in a project that encompasses a small army of developers, then they may not have any problem with staying on with such a project. But, I would gather that these types of projects are pretty rare, and that most projects involve much smaller teams. In such an environment, the stress and toll on one's family life and health aren't worth sticking around for, even for any learning experience that one may gather from the failure. It's a much better situation to simply learn the involved technologies on one's own in your spare time than subject oneself to that level of harm.

eesmith 9y ago
Yet we know that people join these projects. Yourdon's “Death March" covers the topic. I haven't read it in a while, but according to http://wiki.c2.com/?DeathMarch http://wiki.c2.com/?DeathMarch the first chapter includes "what motivates developers to join them". Looking around now, https://www.quora.com/What-is-it-like-to-work-on-a-death-march-software-project?share=1 https://www.quora.com/What-is-it-like-to-work-on-a-death-mar... summarizes what people do in these sorts of projects: "(a) follow all orders you are given, (b) avoid being given orders if you can (i.e. don't volunteer for more work), (c) always appear busy and productive, and (d) start doing side projects (and, possibly, looking for other jobs) to stay sane. A death march project can be a great time to build unrelated skills on the clock, because there tends to be a lot of downtime due to miscommunications. ... keep quiet, always appear busy, and focus on your own career vector." This agrees with my understanding, which is why I don't think it's such a CV death knell as you suggest.

eesmith 9y ago

Yet we know that people join these projects. Yourdon's “Death March" covers the topic. I haven't read it in a while, but according to http://wiki.c2.com/?DeathMarch http://wiki.c2.com/?DeathMarch the first chapter includes "what motivates developers to join them". Looking around now, https://www.quora.com/What-is-it-like-to-work-on-a-death-march-software-project?share=1 https://www.quora.com/What-is-it-like-to-work-on-a-death-mar... summarizes what people do in these sorts of projects: "(a) follow all orders you are given, (b) avoid being given orders if you can (i.e. don't volunteer for more work), (c) always appear busy and productive, and (d) start doing side projects (and, possibly, looking for other jobs) to stay sane. A death march project can be a great time to build unrelated skills on the clock, because there tends to be a lot of downtime due to miscommunications. ... keep quiet, always appear busy, and focus on your own career vector." This agrees with my understanding, which is why I don't think it's such a CV death knell as you suggest.